Shavian Pamphleteering

As students at the famed University of Glasgow prepared to elect their Lord Rector,† no less a quipster than George Bernard Shaw drew his quill as an electioneer. To the Student Leader, a pamphlet issued by the Labor Club of Glasgow University, he contributed an article supporting for the rectorship his veteran friend of many Fabian battles, Sidney Webb,* sometime Labor Cabinet member and President of the Board of Trade. As the two other candidates were Austen Chamberlain, His Majesty’s Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Gilbert Keith Chesterton, famed Author-Journalist, Mr. Shaw did not lack distinguished targets for his shafts.

Quilled the Shavian St. Bernard:

“Mr. Chamberlain is certain to win unless he displays cultural interests and a knowledge of other things than the party game before polling day. … He is probably the ideal man for the job.’

“In wildest contrast to Chamberlain is Chesterton, who by sheer literary force has taken the position in London created in the 18th Century by Dr. Johnson and left vacant at his death until the ascension of G. K. C. . . . To make Chesterton Lord Rector of Glasgow would be at the lowest a great lark.

“Webb, the tertium quid, is more unlike Chesterton than seems possible. Chesterton would address two street boys, a woman and a baby as if they were a grand demonstration. Webb would address the biggest demonstration as if he were telling the boots what to do with the luggage. . . . Chesterton’s weaknesses encourage; Webb’s powers humiliate. . . . Neither Chamberlain nor Chesterton would have a dog’s chance if the Glasgow academic electorate were capable of appreciating Webb.”

It shortly appeared that in championing Sidney Webb as Lord Rector of Glasgow, Mr. Shaw had drawn himself forcibly to the attention of students at another large seat of Scotch learning. With acclaim a potent faction at St. Andrews University-nominated him for their Lord Rectorship. John Galsworthy, famed playwright-author has been nominated as his opponent.

† The Lord Rector of Glasgow University is elected triennially by the students, who vote in “nations” according to the part of Scotland in which they were born. Technically, the Lord Rector is a member of the governing body of the University. Actually, the office is conferred as a mark of honor upon some distinguished man.

Former rectors have included:

1474 Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen

1872 The Rt. Hon. Benjamin Disraeli

1877 The Rt. Hon. William Ewart Gladstone

1906 The Rt. Hon. H. H. Asquith

1909 Lord Curzon of Kedleston

1915 M. Raymond Poincare

1919 The Rt. Hon. Andrew Bonar Law

1922 The Earl of Birkenhead

*Mr. Webb and his brilliant wife (nee Potter) are the authors of a standard work, The History of Trade Unionism, and are probably the greatest authorities on municipal affairs in Britain and certainly the greatest Socialist-economists of their time (TIME, July 28, 1924).

*Famed Lord Rectors at St. Andrews have included: James A. Froude, 1872; James Russell Lowell, 1883; Andrew Carnegie. 1905; J. M. Barrie, 1916.